The next day I woke up so early in the morning and prepared myself for work.
Before I left the house, I instructed Lana not to go anywhere without Dennis. I was being wary of all the text messages I kept receiving last night. Whether a wrong number or not, caution had to be taken .
I arrived at work pretty bummed about the heavy traffic I encountered. Luckily I was not late. I found everyone rushing to the conference hall, where the succession ceremony was to take place. I was among the few appointed to oversee that the event ran smoothly.
Joining Madam Jane, Seb's secretary, we arranged a few files on the table, overlooked through the whole hall to ensure everything was upto standard.
Done with the arrangements, I couldn't help to be curious on who our new CEO would be. So I asked Madam Jane, who she thought could lead us.
"Who do you think would be our new CEO?
Jane, however long she has been with S hotel, shook her head.
"I have no idea dear. Let's wait and see. "
With her dismissal, I took a seat beside on the front row. I opted to sit somewhere I could be able see everything had monitor everything.
It was not long when our Manager showed up. He was then followed by a few men who I did not recognize but I presumed to be members of the Board. Among them, no one looked authoritative enough to be the chancellor of the company.
Jane rea d my confused mind and said beside me.
"I don't think any of them is CEO."
Her words confirmed my curiosity. I calmed my mind as I patiently waited for our Manager to voice a very long speech he had. He had begun by offering condolences to Mr. Sebastian where we had to stand for a few minutes to pay our respects.
Afterwards, he invited one by one members of the board to talk. Each had the same thing to say. Cooperation. All of them were asking for cooperation with the new management.
From their faces, they were pretty confident with whatever the new management would be. They were certain that the whole hotel would be in good hands. Atleast that's what I read.
After a while, one of the board members took a mic to welcome our long awaited and esteemed CEO. The crowd went silent waiting on his dramatic reveal. For a maximum of two eerie minutes, no one showed up.
For a moment everything was becoming a joke. All the arrangements and time the board has taken to orchestrate some thing like this was becoming a fat big joke. However no one dared to speak up. Even the board of directors were patiently waiting on whoever was taking their sweet time to show up. All their heads were somehow looking at one direction which i figured our CEO was to show up from.
Suddenly, the awaited man finally showed up. His presence was very daring and threathening that it left a deafening silence all over the place. The man was clad in a dark suit that added onto his domineering aura. There were black shades shielding his eyes from the bright illuminating lights in the hall.
His pace was unhurried and steady, with every each of his movement ordering all our attention. I could not tell who he was since I was so much focused on his outfit. However his physique was too familiar not to notice.
"Brian," the words were caught in my throat.
This couldn't not happen! How was it possible?
Brian McDermott was supposed to go back to Poland with his wife in a few days. How could he still be here?
Could it be that he changed his mind? Nothing was looking good on my side.
Peering at all my colleagues, all of them were so fascinated by the new CEO to let their minds wonder like mine.
Uncomfortable, I was beginning to fidget on my seat. I immediately rooted my eyes onto the caramel flour to avoid meeting his gaze. It was in that moment I realized I did not make a good choice to take a front seat.
My eyes were fixed on the floor, whilst my ears were keenly listening onto the alluring deep voice of our new CEO. From how he greeted the audience, introduced himself and even said a few words, everything seemed to earn a rise out of me.
Suddenly I was becoming angry. Angry at his voice. Angry he still sounded the same even after so many months apart. Angry that he did not come back to us despite waiting for him for so long. I was angry he had abandoned me when I needed him the most!
On each of my sides, my fist clenched on the chair. I felt like storming up the stage and releasing all my frustrations to the father of my baby. How dare he show up like nothing happened? He was supposed to disappear! Stay hidden for however long I knew. But that was not the case. The case was Brian was here and I had to work with him whether I liked it or not.
It took me so much breathes to calm down. As much as Brian was my baby's father, he was the new CEO, which made him my Boss! I needed to respect that. However if I did not feel okay to work with him, I always had a choice to quit. A small voice inside of me told.
Brian, after giving his speech, he excused himself and as his tendency, disappeared from the stage. I scoffed when he left. Apart of me was grateful he did not carry his secretary of a wife to the event.
Wait, did it mean now that Brian would be working at Sarova hotel, Stacy too will? What would become of Mrs Jane?
I did not want to think about it. The more I thought about it, the more it made me unhappy.
After the succession event was over, everyone retreated to their posts, except me who contemplating her first meeting with her new Boss!